Summary: If you want to get your partner to go to drug and alcohol rehab, you may need to arrange an intervention to convince them you’re serious and you want what’s best for them. In this article, the term partner refers to your spouse or significant other.
Key Points:
- There are different types of interventions, from confrontational to compassionate, and everywhere in between.
- Evidence shows confrontational intervention styles are counterproductive and may increase resistance to treatment.
- Interventions that focus on compassion and understanding – but without sugarcoating the gravity of the situation – are the most effective in getting people to commit to treatment.
The 21st Century Paradigm: Compassion over Confrontation
When most people hear the word intervention in the context of drug and alcohol rehab, they think of the tough love approach, made famous by popular cultural phenomena like the show “Intervention,” which began in 2005 and will air its final episode in June 2026.
The interventions on that show use a well-known but confrontational intervention approach, The Johnson Model. Although common, and considered by most as the default approach to intervention, expert opinion on this approach has evolved over the past twenty years. Mental health professionals at the American Psychological Association (APA) describe the Johnson intervention stye as follows:
“The approach is to plan and implement a confrontation of the substance abuser by one or more caregivers and family members who are actively involved in the lives and care of the person with substance use disorder and/or are impacted by the disorder. Intervention includes planning and the confrontation session which follows, with the goal of engaging the person in treatment.”
Although popular, authorities on addiction and treatment from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) offer this evaluation of intervention styles that rely on confrontation to achieve results:
“Adversarial confrontation is one of the least effective methods for helping clients change substance use behaviors, can paradoxically reduce motivation for beneficial change, and often contributes to poor outcomes.”
Upon reflection, it’s not surprising that these methods are not always effective. It’s even less surprising when we consider the approach developed by Al-Anon, which is based on the Johnson Model and involves family members confronting their partner or loved one with a surprise meeting including their close friends and family.
It may work for some, but we can understand why an individual might bristle at being ambushed, confronted, and given ultimatums by their core social and family support group about what may be the most difficult and painful decision they’ve ever had to make in their lives.
But if this confrontational, tough love approach doesn’t actually work, what works?
The Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT) Intervention Model
The CRAFT model is based on an intervention approach called the community reinforcement approach (CRA) developed over 50 years ago by a group of psychologists who sought an alternative to confrontation. The CRA approach prioritizes support for the family member with the drug or alcohol problem and teaches friends and family how to offer positive reinforcement for choosing recovery and seeking sobriety over drug and alcohol use.
The CRA model helps the person with addiction restructure their social lives and free-time with activities that promote recovery and helps them reconnect with healthy, life-affirming options that leverage natural, sustainable, long-term rewards over the short-term reward/relief associated with drug and alcohol use.
Research conducted over the past five decades shows that interventions based on the CRA model and its derivatives result in more favorable outcomes than confrontational approaches based on the Johnson model.
In a study comparing CRAFT – i.e. CRA + Family Training – with Johnson Style and Al-Anon style interventions, results showed the following:
Percentage Entering Treatment After Intervention: Confrontation vs. Compassion
- Al-Anon Model: 13%
- Johnson Model: 23%
- CRAFT Model: 64%
Additional studies show slightly different results, but identified similar patterns: non-confrontational approaches like CRA and CRAFT were successful two to three times as often as confrontational approaches.
As we mention above, CRA laid the foundation, and CRAFT added family-centered components that increased the effectiveness of the compassion-based intervention.
Let’s take a closer look at what’s involved in a CRAFT-style intervention.
CRAFT: A More Effective Way to Get Your Partner to Go to Drug and Alcohol Rehab
One primary reason CRAFT can work for people who resist going to treatment is that it focuses on creating a network of support for the person with the drug or alcohol problem, offers them help building healthy habits in both their personal and social lives, and takes great pains to avoid any position that resembles “you better get in treatment or else…”
The primary elements of an intervention based on CRA and CRAFT include the following:
Changing the environment.
This involves an intentional and well-considered rebuilding of the specific life situation/circumstances of the person who needs treatment, leveraging positive reinforcement for recovery-oriented behavior.
Recognizing the value of sobriety and recovery.
This involves working with the person who needs treatment to help them recognize the positive advantages of sobriety and abstinence, compared to the negative consequences of continued drug and alcohol use.
Family/significant other participation.
This component is essential. Affirming compassionate support from and prioritizing active involvement of Concerned Significant Others (CSOs) in the process improves overall outcomes both in getting a family member to commit to treatment, and in helping that family member have a successful, productive treatment experience.
Family education.
This involves teaching family members and CSOs about the value of drug and alcohol rehab, the science of addiction, and the science and evidence-base around effective addiction treatment.
Addressing enabling behavior.
This involves education CSOs about enabling behavior, defined as “actions that remove or diminish the natural negative consequences associated with the disordered use of alcohol or drugs.”
Teaching positive reinforcement.
This involves helping CSOs learn how to provide healthy, grounded, positive reinforcement for recovery behavior, and teaching them how to make positive alternatives to drug or alcohol use the default option in the home.
Communication education.
This involves teaching CSOs principles of healthy, non-confrontational communication styles that promote understanding and connection between family members, CSOs, and the person who needs drug or alcohol rehab.
We’ll discuss the process of CRAFT below.
Support From the Beginning: The CRAFT Process
Once the CRA/CRAFT approach became known for its effective approach to helping people commit to drug and alcohol treatment, a group of providers assembled a CRAFT handbook that outlines the principles and application of the CRAFT approach.
CRAFT: 8 Steps in the Community Healing Process
- Functional Analysis of Substance Use.
- This step helps the person who needs treatment answer the question, “What are the consequences of my current alcohol and drug use?”
- Sobriety Sampling.
- This step helps the person who needs treatment answer the question, “What might life without alcohol and drugs be like?”
- CRAFT Treatment Plan.
- In this step, the patient (if they commit to treatment after step), family, and provider design an individual treatment plan.
- Behavioral Skills Training.
- This step includes independent problem solving, communication, and learning how to say no when offered alcohol or drugs, i.e. refusal training.
- Job Skills Training
- The CRAFT approach posits that full and gainful employment is a protective factor for continued drug and alcohol use and relapse: this step helps patients develop the skills they need to seek and find employment.
- Social and Recreational Counseling.
- This step involves helping the patient learn to replace drug and alcohol use with healthy, fun, life-affirming activities.
- Relapse Prevention.
- This step involves refusal training, trigger identification, and managing behavior in case of relapse.
- Relationship Counseling.
- When a person learns to communicate in a healthy and productive manner with the most important people in their lives, their chance at achieving long-term sobriety increases.
If you want to get your partner to go to drug and alcohol rehab, you may want to consider the CRA/CRAFT approach. Not only does an extensive body of evidence show it’s more effective than confrontational approaches, but it’s also designed to help a person who needs treatment arrive at the conclusion they need treatment independently.
This crucial because of this simple fact:
A person who chooses rehab themselves is more likely to achieve recovery than a person who chooses rehab to satisfy others.
And when that person has a compassionate support system behind them that knows what they’re doing and exactly what they need, they’re more likely to achieve sobriety and learn to grow and thrive in recovery.
